Butterbeer, Quidditch, and the Shrieking Shack
by Girl with the Golden Snitch
Summary: Katie returns to Hogwarts for her sixth year after spending an incredibly boring summer in London with her relatives. She is welcomed back not only with a party, but an unexpected crush on a certain Gryffindor captain. KB/OW
1. Chapter 1: Train Rides and Parties

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, none of the charactors in this story belong to me. You can thank JKR for them.

CHAPTER 1: Train Rides and Parties

I stepped out of the barrier that concealed Platform 9 3/4 and shoved my trolley forward. After a long summer spent in London with my smelly relatives, I was ready to get back to Hogwarts for my sixth year and spend time with my friends. When my luggage had been loaded onto the sleek and colorful Hogwarts Express, I jumped on the train and ran down the passageway looking for Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, my two best friends.

"Hey Bell!" yelled a familiar voice.

I spun around and saw Angelina's head pop out of a compartment behind me. I was so giddy from being free of cousins, uncles, and aunts that my smile exploded into laughter as I ran back to Ang's compartment. Several other heads leaned out in the hallway to see who the hyper laughing girl was, but I ignored them and jumped into my friends' cozy compartment and crashed the door shut behind me.

"Hey guys! I haven't seen you all in so long! I am so happy to see you guys!" I said.

My smile was ridiculously wide and it was starting to hurt my cheeks. I stopped and took a breath and then looked around at my grinning friends. Alicia, Angelina, Fred, George, and Oliver were crammed into the seats.

"Well take a seat Bell -if you can." said Alicia. She was squished between Fred and George.

"I love you guys." I sighed and plopped down on Angelina's lap. She pushed me off and forced me between her and Oliver, who was reading a Puddlemere United Quidditch magazine.

"Hey, no declarations of love allowed Juliette. Unless you've decided to buy some of our new Love Licorice, which is fresh of the line." exclaimed Fred. The train jerked forward and we were moving.

"Of course, there are still a few minor side affects- " George added.

"-levitation-" Fred listed.

"-puking for several hours-" George nodded.

"-temporary memory loss-"

"-nothing we can't iron out." George smiled and pulled out a few multi-colored strands of the Licorice.

I smiled at my two red-headed and freckled friends who were offering me their latest experiment.

"I'd rather you test your joke matters on the first years." I grinned and turned m attention to Alicia who was talking to Angelina about classes. She asked me what I had.

"Oh I have Arithmecy, Divination, Advanced Transfiguration, and some others. No potions for me! HaHAA!" I did a little dance which shoved Angelina off the seat onto the floor.

"HEY!" She leaped up and tackled me and I toppled over onto Oliver, whose magazine went flying and smacked Fred's face. Angelina sat on top of me. My head ended up in Oliver's lap.

"Welcome back chaser." Oliver looked down at me and smiled. I was temporarily stunned by his appearance. I hadn't really looked at him yet. His rich brown hair was a bit ruffled and I wanted to touch it because it looked incredibly soft. Oliver's gorgeous brown eyes were laughing, if that's possible. I blinked and smiled back.

"Hi…sorry about that." I said it a second later than I should have. Alicia noticed. I shoved Angelina back to her side of the seat and sat up.

Fred and George's eyes suddenly got really big and they looked out the compartment door. They both scrambled up and wrenched the door open. The food trolley lady was passing and the twins had seen chocolate frogs and exploding snap. We all knew what we'd be doing for the remainder of the train ride.

_____________________________________________________________

After we had all arrived at Hogwarts and had eaten dinner in the Great Hall, all the Gryffindors went to the common room and started to head towards their dorms. Fred and George looked at each other and then looked around at everyone like they were confused. I immediately knew what was going on. Sure enough, as I looked around, I saw butterbeers and more exploding snap crackers hidden around the room.

"George, why is everybody going to bed at a decent hour?" Fred said loudly, and looked at his brother.

Everyone stopped and turned around, realizing what the twins had planned (except for the first years, who were _really _confused).

"Right, Fred, I think we deserve a little welcome party!" George said loudly.

They each pulled out a few bottles of butterbeer and yelled, "well…what are you all standing there for?" Everyone whooped and rushed to find the butterbeer and exploding snap. Fred and George clinked their bottles and took a swig. I watched this all from in front of the windows that overlooked the Forbidden Forest and part of the Quidditch pitch. I smiled as a random person put a butterbeer in my hand. Butterbeer was my weakness. I would do almost anything to get my hands on a bottle. I took the cap off and took a nice long drink. The liquid tasted like heaven and it topped off my first day back at Hogwarts. Alicia and Angelina were on the couch and were beckoning me over. I happily sauntered over to them and dropped down of the couch. I knew what was coming. Every year, Angelina, Alicia and I stayed up the entire first night and talked about boys. I personally thought we were a little old to be doing this, but it was good bonding time between us girls, so I took part in it anyway.

"_SOOoooo_…who's lookin' fine Ang?" Alicia wiggled her eyebrows at Angelina.

"Oh, well, you know, I heard Collin Creevey is quite the looker." She grinned and we all burst out laughing.

"Let's start with our friends." Alicia swung her head in my direction and slyly smiled.

_"Oh no…here it comes…"_ I thought. I took a reassuring gulp of my butterbeer which was gripped tightly in my hand.

"We've never actually found out who Katie likes, have we Angelina?"

Angelina brightened up and said, "No, I don't believe we have, Alicia. What do you think about the twins, Katie?"

I smirked and answered, "Whenever I see George I just want to rip all his clothes off." I fanned myself and pretended to swoon. Then I licked my lips and they laughed with me.

"What about Oliver?" Angelina suggested.

"Well, I think we can all agree he's terribly good looking and all, but he's one of our best friends!! That would just not work out right at all."

Angelina and Alicia looked at each other.

"LAAAAAME excuse Kates." Alicia said. I didn't know what to say so it was silent for a moment.

"Oh my gosh! We should get him to take you to Hogsmead this weekend!" Angelina laughed and I gaped at her.

"yeah! You're right Ang! They would make such a cute couple! I can see it now. Their name would be Katliver, no, Olivater, or something!"

They were taking this too far. I lunged at Alicia and we tumbled down to the floor and sat on her. She laughed but kept smiling at Angelina nodding her head.

"How's the party ladies? Bell's already tackled somebody! Well that didn't take long." Fred jumped over the couch and sat in my favorite corner of it.

Fred had a firewhiskey in his hand and Alicia squirmed her way out from under me and snatched the bottle, much to Fred's surprise. Fred's eyebrows shot up when Alicia surprised us all by taking a long drink of it and shuddered.

"Impressive Spinnet." Fred said. She grinned and sat next to him.

I was still on the floor with my butterbeer in hand when a body crashed into me from my right and knocked me over. Their body felt tense and I could practically feel their muscles through their sweater.

My butter beer almost fell out of my hand, but the person who was now on top of me caught it before it spilled.

_"Fast reflexes…" _I thought.

I turned my head and found myself looking directly at Oliver Wood's mouth, which was centimeters away from my face.

_"Merlins beard." _I thought.

He softly bit his lower lip which I found extremely alluring and he slowly put the drink back in my hand. Oliver carefully lifted himself off of me. I must have looked shocked because he laughed after seeing my face.

"Need a hand?" Oliver stuck out his hand.

"His hand isn't all she wants." whispered Angelina in Alicia's ear. Alicia tried to suppress her laughter.

I recovered quickly and took his hand. I was surprised at how soft it was. I would've thought it would be like an extremely calloused rock from the amount of time he spent flying on his broom.

"Thanks Oliver. Especially for catching my butterbeer. Probably would've died if it spilled." I smiled as he pulled me up and explained how he was knocked into me.

Later after all the partying was over, and I was sitting at the end of my bed talking with Ang and Alicia, I surprised myself when my thoughts centered around Oliver Wood.

_____________________________________________


	2. Chapter 2: Hogsmead

**A/N: Katie and Angelina are the Gryf. Chasers.**

Disclaimer: None of the HP characters belong to me. They belong to JKR.

_**READ AND REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D please. this is my first fan fic. :D :D :D :D :D**_

CHAPTER 2: Hogsmead

Breakfast the next morning was hard to get through. After staying up the entire night, Angelina, Alicia, and I were having a hard time keeping our eyes open and our faces from falling onto our plates of waffles and bacon. George laughed at us when e and Fred walked in and saw us.

"Pull an all-nighter girls?" Fred asked.

"Yaaaaaoooooa" Alicia yawned.

"First quidditch game Thursday!" Oliver came up behind us and sat down next to George. He rubbed his hands together excitedly.

"It's against Hufflepuff! We'll flatten them. By the way, I'd like to discuss with the team some new tactics I came up with over the summer…"

Oliver pulled out a worn notebook and flipped it open to reveal a very marked up diagram of the quidditch pitch and there were tons of edited scribbles and notes everywhere. Fred and George looked at him and then went back to talking between themselves about some new candy they had come up with that was supposed to make our eyes change color.

We all went off to class after breakfast was over. I slowly climbed the ladder to Divination and entered the hot, stuffy room. I took a seat by the window in the back across from a girl from Ravenclaw and took out my book. In my opinion, divination was a waste of time. I yawned and looked out the window. I was surprised, but then realized I shouldn't be when I saw Oliver with Madame Hooch and his broom. It looked like they were having a conversation about something to do with blocking techniques. I faintly remembered Oliver saying on the train that he had an independent study class with Madame Hooch.

After the day ended I went to bed and got a good night's rest. Early the next morning, I got up and went to quidditch practice with the rest of the team. We zoomed around for a warm-up and then practiced the new tactics for the next day's game.

Later we went to classes and then hung out in front of the fire in the common room for a while.

________________________________________________

The next day was the first quidditch match against Hufflepuff. As expected, we pummeled them and won 260 to 0.

"Good work team. Hit the showers!" Oliver looked ridiculously happy and proud, just like he always did when we won a match. I chuckled to myself while I took my quaffle grip-gloves off.

On Saturday, our crew headed off to Hogsmead after a delicious breakfast of Belgian waffles and pumpkin juice.

Alicia and Angelina looked at each other mischievously and I immediately suspected them of something, but I didn't say anything. When we got to Zonko's, Fred and George said they were going to go restock.

"We'll go with you guys." Angelina and Alicia sniggered and followed the twins in, much to my surprise. Usually it was only Fred and George along with an unhappy Oliver. Fred and George grinned and let Alicia and Angelina in the door. They were obviously in on the secret. And then it wasn't a secret anymore, because I realized what they had done. Oliver and I were standing outside the brightly colored store by ourselves. I turned to Oliver, who looked a bit puzzled as well.

"Ooookaaay…since when have Angelina and Alicia enjoyed watching Fred and George go crazy for hours in Zonko's?: I asked him. I wanted to know if he knew anything about this.

He shrugged and said, "Well, as long as they are in there, we could go to the Shrieking Shack, Honeydukes, or the Three Broomsticks. Your choice." He smiled and I was temporarily blinded by his beautifully white teeth and my heart stuttered.

"Well…" I said, recovering myself, "I could always do with a butterbeer, so I say we stop at Broomsticks on the way to the Shack." I smiled up at him and pulled his arm towards the old pub.

"I should've known…" He smiled again and followed me.

After we bought our drinks, we walked to the Shrieking Shack and stared at it silently for a while. It was a comfortable silence. Suddenly he spoke.

"Would you like to see the inside?" He tilted his head in my direction and nodded at the shack.

"What?! You can get in?! HOW!?" I looked up at him in disbelief, but he was looking around to see if anybody was nearby.

"Having the twins as best friends teaches you a few things. Come on." He was walking towards a seemingly random tree.

"The thing is, the twins _don't_ know about the real entrance to the shack. They think the passage is blocked. There is another way in." Oliver crouched down to the trunk and scooped up a handful of what looked like sand

He straightened up and threw it over our heads saying, "Shrieking Shack," and we were inside the front door of it.

"Holy Harpy…" I said, looking around. I took a sip of my butterbeer and took everything in. The place was covered in dust and was frail-looking. Magic alone must have been keeping the shack from collapsing. The walls were bending and swaying. Wind whistled by cracks in the walls and windows. I walked into the next room which appeared to be the kitchen because there was a stove-like thing under another grimy window. I kept going, exploring the rest of the shack, while Oliver stretched out on the mutilated couch in the tiny living room. Eventually I came back to join him and sat on a chair that looked like somebody had took a knife to it.

"How long have you been coming here?" I asked. He turned his head in my direction.

"Since third year. So this will be my fourth year coming here." I took this in and drank the last drop of my butter beer.

"Wow. How come you've never told anybody? Fred and George would be all over this." I looked sadly at my empty bottle.

"Exactly. It's nice and quiet most of the time here. Why do you look as if somebody's died?" He questioned.

"My butterbeers' all gone," I replied. He laughed and his clear, deep brown eyes twinkled.

"You can have the rest of mine." He tossed his bottle to me and I caught it and grinned.

"So why did you show me?" I took a sip and looked at him.

"I am going to pass it down to you. This years' my last at Hogwarts…Fred and George have enough secrets and Alicia and Angelina would probably tell everybody about it…" He gazed up through a hole in the wood ceiling.

I was unbelievably happy. I couldn't think of what to say so I just said," Oh."

Oliver stretched and got up and went up a dangerous-looking staircase. I got up and followed him.

"You can see everything from here. There is the rest of our crew. It looks like they've just came out of Zonko's." I looked around and identified the room we were in as the bedroom. There was a window Oliver was looking out and the sun was just behind a cloud. The clouds were pinkish-orange and broke apart, letting rays of the setting sun through the widow which hit Oliver's hair. I gasped because his hair became rippled with natural, reddish-tinged highlights I didn't know he had.

He turned around and said, "What?"

I closed my eyes for a second to clear my head and opened them.

"Nothing. We better go find everybody else." I turned to the stairs and started down them.

The walls gave a great, creaking lurch and I unexpectedly found myself losing my balance when Oliver's arm was around my waist to steady me. He must have realized what he was doing, because he quickly retracted it and just held my arm with his had instead. We make it down the angled stairs a few seconds later.

"Yeah…Umm…The stairs tend do the that sometimes." He stood there at the bottom of the stairs with his hands in his pockets a bit awkwardly. Finally he led the way back to the front door and took a handful of sand from a flowerpot by the door.

"It's basically like floo powder without a chimney," he said. And with that he threw it in the air and said, "Zonko's Joke Shop."

We walked around looking for Alicia, Angelina, Fred, and George.

"Thanks for showing me the shack Oliver. It was great!" I said as we walked.

"You're welcome." He smiled at me and slung his arm around my shoulders.

"By the way," said Oliver, "isn't your birthday coming up soon?" He looked down at me.

This is when my heart skipped a beat. I realized how much I actually like Oliver, no matter how much of a Quidditch dork he was. I felt all tingly where his arm was touching my shoulders.

"Yeah! It's in two weeks! I'm gonna' be seventeen! Yessssss!" I jumped a little because I was so excited. Oliver smiled and laughed. His laugh sounded exactly like an angel's should. We were approaching Honeydukes.

"Hey I see George over there." He pointed and I spotted George next to Honeydukes trying to persuade a second year to take a piece of candy. We both laughed when the kid ran away from George whose shoulders slumped. Oliver and I caught up as soon as George began to approach the kid's friend who looked terrified and ran off to join his friend.

"No luck today, Mr. Weasley, sir?" I asked him. He looked at us and smirked and then said, "Yeah, I guess not. Maybe Fred had some more luck. Here he comes now."

Oliver took his arm off my shoulders a little reluctantly (that was most likely my imagination though) and waived to Fred who was with Alicia and Angelina, who were looking at me deviously.

The trip back to Hogwarts was enjoyable but uneventful. When we all got back to the common room, we hung out in front of the fire. Oliver, Fred, Alicia and I were al on the couch, the two guys on the ends. Angelina and George were in the chairs on either side. Everybody was stretched out lazily. Eventually everyone went to their respective dorms except for Oliver and I. Oliver had fallen asleep on the couch. I crawled over closer to him and pushed him to try and wake him up. He slowly opened his eyes.

"Oliver," I whispered, "everybody went to their dorms.: He sat up and ran his hand through his hair. I silently wished I could do that.

"Bloody hell, I'm not getting up 'til tomorrow morning." He groggily slurred.

"Come on. Here I'll help you."

I got up and pulled his arm, but he didn't get up, so I wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled him up, since he was clearly not going to get anywhere without some force. I tried to drag in forward, but he didn't move, so I gave up and dropped back down on the couch. His arm was still around me so I tried to detach it, but Oliver said something incomprehensible and pulled me down in front of him on the couch. I faintly wondered if he had ever had a teddy bear when he was younger. Oliver pulled me in tighter to his chest. I didn't know what to do. There was no way to wake him without waking the rest of the tower and I couldn't escape his iron-strong hug-type thing he had me in. I felt my eyelids droop and gave up trying to get out of his arms. I laid there for a few minutes enjoying the warmth of his body against mine and finally snuggled closer into him and fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3: Fresh Air

**A/N: Remember to read and REVIEW so I can improve my writing and the story! I'll probably get the next chapter up sooner if you do. :D**

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the plot. You can thank JKR for everything else._

CHAPTER 3

_**Ollie's POV:**_

I woke up and at first didn't realize where I was, but then realized it was the common room. I then also realized my arm was holding Katie Bell against my body, most likely against their will.

_"Damn. This is going to be awkward when Katie wakes up_,_" _I thought.

I looked around and saw that the sun hadn't even risen yet and there was nobody besides Katie and I in the common room.

"_Hell, might as well enjoy the moment. Not too often you wake up with the girl of your dreams in your arms."_

I observed the scene. I was on the couch with Katie curled up against me while the moon softly sent glowing beams of light in the old glass windows. Katie looked shockingly innocent and vulnerable as she slept. I was used to the Katie that bounced around and never was without a spring in her step and a smile on her face. While pondering this, Katie's steady-paced breathing suddenly stopped and she became still. I guessed that she woke up. I propped my head up and looked down at Katie. She resumed breathing, much to my relief and she twisted a little so she could see my face. Her hazel eyes met mine.

"Erm…Good morning…" I said quietly. I didn't know what else to say.

"Good morning Oliver," she said. Her eyes wandered around the room.

"So how did this happen?" I asked.

"Well you weren't exactly the most cooperative person last night. You wouldn't let go of me when I was trying to get you to your dorm." Her eyes locked with mine for a few seconds and she blushed, which brought some curious feelings up to my Scottish head.

"Sorry for the inconvenience. On the bright side, at least it wasn't Fred or George who woke up with me here. They would've gone ballistic." Katie looked down and smiled. I felt a little awkward now.

"I guess we should get up before anybody sees us," Katie said. I peeled my arm off of her and we climbed off the couch. We both stood there awkwardly and she shifted her wait onto one leg. I looked out a window.

_"Damn this is awkward." _I'm sure our thoughts were on the same line.

"OK, I'm going to go to my dorm…See ya later Katie." I slowly walked to my dorm and heard her climb the stairs to her own.

_**Katie's POV:**_

I climbed the stairs to my dorm and laid down on my bed, arms and legs sprawled out and hanging over the sides. Instead of going back to sleep for the remaining hour left before Alicia and Angelina would get up, I reached over to my bedside table and picked up a worn book and cracked it open. It was a pretty well-known muggle book called Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne. I held it closer to my face as I tried to forget about the previous night. I felt a little overwhelmed as I lay there, trying to register the words in the book, because I had never had any kind of relationship with a member of the opposite sex other than friendship. I was scared out of my wits after what happened when I woke up this morning.

After a failure to keep my attention on the book, I finally snapped it shut and set it back down on the table beside me. I silently dragged my hands down my face, which I scrunched up in frustration. This shouldn't be so terrifying. I was Katie Bell for Merlin's sake! I was fun and easy-going, without a care in the world!

Even as I wordlessly tried to convince myself that I was fine, I knew I needed to do something physical to relief the blasted stress I felt. I decided an early morning run around the lake was going to have to suffice for now. I got up and changed into some running clothes and pulled my light brown hair into a pony-tail. Then I took my wand and stuck it in the side of my shorts for safe-keeping.

While I took off at a fast pace once I reached the lake, I worked on pushing all thoughts out of my head, which worked pretty well, seeing as I had to focus my attention on not tripping over rocks and slipping on dead leaves. If anything can help you with frustration, confusion, and the feeling of being overwhelmed, it's running. I felt the ridiculous stress that had been built up inside me being left behind in my footprints.

I pushed myself, funning faster and feeling the satisfying gripping and tugging of my shoes on the earth, propelling me forward away from worry and into a perfect peace. Sweat started to heat my face and I wiped my forehead on my sleeve of my long-sleeve t-shirt. Thankfully, a light wind blew through my hair, bringing with it the scent of the last flowers that were braving the chilly weather. I dared to close my eyes for a brief moment and just _be. _This was among my top favorite things to do; laying down my worries, thoughts, and problems to "stop and smell the roses" (as the muggles say) left me as the Katie Bell I knew myself as.

I opened my eyes (still on my feet, thank you very much) and slowed to a jog until I reached a tree, where I stretched my legs and laid down on the cold and slightly damp grass. I poked lazily at a dead bit of leaf with my wand, transforming it into a caterpillar, then a quill, and then back to that ugly brown leaf again. The sun peaked over the perfectly colored clouds, reminding me to get back to the showers and breakfast. Pulling myself up from the grass, I stared at the beautiful castle that was my second home and started towards it, not caring that my feelings I had left behind me at the lake were bound to catch up with me again sometime or another in the future, just like those unwanted, smelly relatives I had been forced to stayed all summer with.

After a short, hot shower, I dressed in my favorite red sweater and pulled on a pair of grey sweats. Today was my comfy day. No tight-fit jeans or tangling robes for me. I went through the desolately-populated common room through the portrait hole and to the Great Hall where I approached my usual table with happy, warm, fuzzy feelings. Maybe that was just the red sweater I was feeling. Oliver was sitting across from an empty seat that was obviously meant for me, because Alicia was across from Fred, and Ang was sitting across from George. I took my seat and concentrated on filling my plate with breakfast food. Everybody was chattering away happily, but I felt a certain pair of meltingly brown eyes studying me as I scarfed down my eggs and started on my toast. Finally I looked up and met Oliver's gaze as I thoughtfully nibbled on my last piece of toast. He ends of his beautiful mouth turned up into a smile and he cocked a perfect eyebrow, as if challenging me to say something. I dropped my toast on my golden plate and took a swig of pumpkin juice.

"Well, I'm off to the library," I said nonchalantly, saluting my friends. I think I heard Oliver choke a little on his breakfast when I said this as bounced down the aisle way between the tables, still enjoying the feeling of not caring about anything. What did he expect me to say? "I had fun sleeping with you last night?" That probably wouldn't go over too well with the twins.

Leaving the Great Hall, I felt pretty proud of myself for not spontaneously combusting or something. Nobody had said anything that might trigger my unwanted emotions and I felt quite happy as I walked down the corridor.

"Katie," yelled an angel's voice behind me. I turned around and saw Oliver running to catch up to me.

_"Oh no. This is it. Here comes the trigger," _I thought.

"Hey Oliver. What's up?" I said once he reached me.

"Hi, umm…I don't want any awkwardness going on here. Although you don't seem to be having any difficulty with that. As a matter of fact, you are unusually peppy this fine morning…" He fell into pace with me and left the last sentence trailing so it sounded like it needed an answer, even though it was not a question.

"Oh yeah. I went running this morning. Runner's high. Try it sometime. It's great. But yeah, there's no need to make a big talk over it. The rest of the crew would die… Especially those two red-heads we know." I felt a little pink just from walking and talking with Oliver.

"Alright then. So what's happening at the library on a Sunday?" He asked, moving on.

I smiled, "Well there's this chair in the back by the windows that's been calling me and I need to write a 14-inch essay on the molecular changes of the transfiguration of a beetle into a button for Miss Minnie Mack." Oliver laughed and shook his head. Miss Minnie Mack (sometimes shortened to Miss Mack) was the name that I had come up with for Professor McGonagall in my second year. Now our whole crew used it behind her back.

"Mind if I join you?" Oliver asked.

"Umm.. ok. sure. What are you going to do? Stare out the windows at the quidditch pitch?" I smirked.

He looked thoughtful. "I could always work on some new designs for the quaffle…"

I sniggered at his obsession with quidditch as we reached the library doors, which Oliver absentmindedly opened for me. He followed me to the cozy spot by the windows behind a bookshelf and grabbed a few books which were on display, handing me one on transifigurology.

As I wrote my essay, I found it frustratingly hard to concentrate, because my eyes kept wandering over to where he was sitting, reading a book on the evolution of the broom. A few times he glanced over and grinned when he met my ogling stare, making me feel like an idiotic third year with a first crush. I, of course, immediately turned back to my essay, cheeks flaming red, and tried to concentrate on the words I was writing. Once I was done, I looked over the whole thing and noticed that there were many lines which were slanted upwards, due to my wandering eyes.

Sighing, I stretched, glad to be done with the dratted piece of parchment. Oliver noticed I was done and got up. I tried to get up but tripped over the leg of my chair, noisily ending up in a tangle with the chair on the floor. Oliver laughed loudly to my embarrassment and Irma Pince, Hogwarts librarian and infamous irritable prick, came out of nowhere and told us to be quiet or else she would be forced to throw us out of her beloved library. I attempted to keep a straight face. She strutted away with a strange resemblance to a huffed up chicken, which I later told Fred and George about.

"Blimey, her lips were pressed so tightly together, I reckon she could've squeezed out a diamond!" I whispered, still laying on the floor.

Oliver laughed quietly and helped me up, handing me my rolled up essay.

On our way back to the common room, Oliver slipped his arm around my waist, surprising me, but I just kept chattering away, trying not to blush, until we got to the portrait fat lady.

"Scuttle Billow," I said and the portrait swung open. We clambered in , Oliver behind me, and took our usual places with the rest of the gang in front of the fire. I happily gabbed away and laughed at Fred and George's attempts to lure some first years into trying an odd-shaped lump of something or other. Fred gave up and settled back down into his seat on the couch, but George stood up.

"I'm game for some real fun," said George. He jumped up and headed across the room ro the portrait hole. He turned around.

"How about some dungbombs and then we can hit the kitchens?" He suggested.

"Or we could toss a quaffle around outside while it's still decent out," Angelina proposed.

"Let's go to the kitchens and then we can go outside," amended Fred as we all got up and filed out the hole.

We headed down to the painting of the fruit bowl and all the guys plus Angelina went in for some food. Alicia and I stayed outside because unlike the others, our stomachs were not bottomless pits. Alicia leaned up against the wall and eyes me suspiciously.

"Soooo. I noticed Oliver staring at you in the common room." She wiggled her eyebrows and I laughed and blushed a little. Who would've known a little comment like that could bring the dreaded hot blood to my cheeks.

"Really? He has been acting a tad bit flirtatious today, now that you mention it." I was about to go into further detail, but the painting swung open, and out came the object of our discussion, followed by the others. The twins' arms were overflowing with pumpkin pasties, a few butterbeers (which I was eyeing), as well as an assortment of other snacks. Oliver had gotten two butterbeers and put one in my hand, while Katie winked at me from behind him. I grinned at the both of them, each for separate reasons.

"Ok, all set?" I asked everybody while I cracked open my delicious butterbeer.

"Yeah. Hey Ang, you got the quaffle?" George asked with a full mouth, spewing pumpkin pastie crumbs everywhere.

"Yup," she answered. We started down the corridor to the doors that led outside. She gripped the quaffle and ran up and jumped on George's back, to his great surprise. He dropped some food but caught her and carried her in the standard piggyback position. George laughed when Alicia did the same and jumped on Fred, who was more expectant and had made sure to shovel the last of his kitchen delights into his mouth before catching her legs.

"My turn?" I guessed and Oliver grinned from in front of me, ready to catch me.

I ran and launched myself onto his back and he caught my legs right above my knee, which was my ticklish spot, so I screamed in laughter and we fell to the floor when I started kicking and he lost his grip.

"Bloody Hell, Bell! I didn't know you were so ticklish!" Oliver said picking himself up and laughing.

The twins had turned around to watch the fiasco and were almost doubled over in laughter, with the girls trying not to fall themselves.

"Ha Ha. Very Funny," I said, even though I was laughing a little too.

"Oliver smiled and said, "Looks like I'm going to have to carry you a different way."

_"Well, what other ways are there to carry people besides piggyback?" _I thought.

"It's either on my shoulders or you're going bridal style." Oliver smiled angelically, answering my unspoken question.

Alicia face poked out and smirked at me from behind Fred's shoulder.

"Ok… Well It'll probably be easier for me if I am on your shoulders." I said. Alicia rolled her eyes at me and went back to talking with Fred.

"Ok. Up you go," Oliver somehow lifted me up so I was sitting on his shoulders and he was standing up. I felt a little self-conscious seeing as his head was between my legs. Fortunately, I am a chaser and that means I am pretty skinny and light. And a wonderful benefit of sitting on Oliver's shoulders is that you have to hold onto something. And that something happened to be his head. And on that head was the most glorious, rich hair a person could imagine. On the way outside to a clear spot of grass by the lake, I looked at Alicia smugly and nodded her head and smiled as if to say, "Yeah, I guess running your hands through his hair would be a plus…" It was. Oliver's hair was so, sooo soft and thick and perfect. I couldn't help but let my mind wonder what the rest of his body was like under the clothes.

"How's the view up there?" asked Oliver, interrupting my not-so-lady-like thoughts, not that I was exactly a lady.

"It's great. I can see so much from up here. How tall are you Oliver?" **(A/N: I was tempted to say, "I can see Russia from here!" if you know what I'm talking about. Even though I am Republican, I thought it was kind of funny and I feel really stupid laughing at my own joke. Sorry for interrupting the story. :D please, continue!)**

"Six three," he replied. I temporary took my hands out of his hair and bent down to look at him from the side of his face.

"Are you serious? I didn't know you were such a tree." He laughed and let me down carefully, because we had reached the flat grassy spot by the lake. He kept his arm around me as we sat down with the others. I noticed Alicia was leaned up against Fred, who looked a little surprised and wait…was Fred blushing?!

"Ha-ha!" I laughed out loud and immediately covered my mouth. Oliver looked down at me and temporarily stunned me with his ruffled hair (which I am proud to say was _my _doing) and gorgeous face.

"What?" He said.

I had to recover myself by tearing my eyes away from him and looking around to remember what I had laughed at and then I saw Fred and remembered. I tried to discretely point at Fred and he saw what was going on he put a hand over his own mouth, trying to stifle a laugh. It turns out my pointing wasn't so discreet, because Angelina and George had seen too and didn't even try to stop from rolling on the ground laughing. At least Fred and Alicia hadn't seen. They both looked really confused, like they had missed a good joke, which they kind of had.

After we all got over the Fred-blushing incident, we tossed the Quaffle around some and then I decided it was time for some muggle fun. We were going to play soccer. I laughed when they all looked perplexed. I'd forgotten that I was the only one who had taken Muggle Culture and Craft last year. I explained the rules to them and transformed the quaffle into a soccer ball.

"Ok. Teams. How about boys against girls." I suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Fred said and knuckle-pounded George, who agreed.

"Alright," Oliver agreed also, going over to Fred and George.

"Okay girls," I said as they came over and joined me.

"It's only three to a team, so Oliver will probably be goalie, and Fred and George will both want to be offense, so they won't have a defense. I'd say our best bet is to have you in the goal, Ang, and Alicia and I will take offense, to make it even." We were huddled up in a circle with our arms around each other. I had my foot on the soccer ball.

"Good." Angelina nodded her head.

"Okay. Let's give them some attitude" Alicia agreed to the plan and grinned.

We turned around and put our best game faces on, standing there smirking at the boys with our arms crossed. They looked at the other girls and I, and smirked right back at us nonverbally saying, "_It's on_."

________________________________________

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Not much happened between Katie and Oliver, I realize, but Katie had a lot going on in her head, I guess. It's funny how I have no idea what I'm going to write until I sit down with a pencil and my notebook and begin to write the words down. I was going to put the game up in this chapter, but I didn't have time, so it will have to be in the next chapter.**

_**PLEASE click that little greenish button there in the middle of this page at the bottom and type summ'n up for me!**_


	4. Chapter 4: The Soccer Game

**A/N: Please READ AND REVIEW!!! YOUR OPINION IS VALUED!!! ok. yeah. so enjoy the chapter. this chapter is my favorite so far. hope you think so too!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. I only own the plot. Dun Dun DUUUH…_

___________________________

CHAPTER 4

___________________________

We turned our backs on the boys and drew the out-of-bounds lines with our wands. Fred and George tried to transform two large rocks into nets for the goals, but they ended up with two fishing poles instead, I had to help them out until we finally got it right.

When everything was ready, I dropped the soccer ball in the center of the muddy field and backed up to fall into line with Alicia and Angelina. We assumed a hopefully-menacing-looking stance.

"Before we beat all of your arses, we would just like to make one final adjustment to the way we get to play," Fred said, stepping towards us. George and Oliver followed, nodding and smiling innocently.

"And what's your proposal?" Angelina asked with one eyebrow arched.

"We would like to make this _tackle _soccer," said George.

"Fine, but you'll be sorry you ever said that once we're done with you pansies," I said, stepping forward.

"Then let the game begin!" Fred said, grinning.

Fred and I moved to the left forward positions and Alicia and George took the right forward positions. Oliver and Angelina backed into the goalie zones.

"Ready? Go ahead girls, you can take the ball first," said Fred.

"Ok. Let's play!" Alicia yelled, springing forward to take the ball. Fred immediately chased after her trying to steal the ball, but she stayed out of his reach.

Alicia passed the ball to me when Fred lunged to tackle her to the ground. I received the ball and went for a goal. I kicked it in the high right corner of the goal, but Oliver amazingly jumped and somehow caught it, landing on the ground and splattering all of us in mud. He chuckled at my face. I was gaping at him and my eyes were opened wide. I couldn't believe that Oliver just blocked that perfectly shot goal. He got up and threw the ball out to George, who ran down the field and scored while the rest of us were still staring at Oliver.

As the game went on, the boys scored another goal, and Angelina, Alicia, and I still hadn't managed to get any. I could see that Oliver's uncanny ability to save goals would keep us from scoring unless I did something to help Alicia and I get past him.

I called a time-out and waved Alicia over. She was covered in mud from being tackled to the ground numerous times, as were the rest of us.

"Hey. What's the deal?" She asked.

"We won't be able to get any goals unless we do something to prevent Oliver from saving them all the time," I replied.

"You got a plan?" Alicia raised her eyebrows.

"Of course." I smiled and explained it to her as quickly as I could, because the guys were getting antsy.

"Ok boys, we're ready. Are you?" I called to them.

"We were born ready Bell!" Oliver yelled from the goal.

"Alright then. TIME IN!" I yelled and took the soccer ball. I stayed out of George's reach until Alicia and I were closer to the goal. I passed to Alicia and ran straight at Oliver whose attention was now focused on Alicia and the ball.

"Hey, WOOD!" I shouted I launched myself off the muddy, slippery ground and tackle him when he had turned his head.

I pinned him to the ground and grabbed his arms and held them behind his back so that he couldn't move. His beautiful face was in the mud, and it looked shocked.

Alicia kicked the ball in the goal and punched the air with victory.

"Goooooal!" She cried, chasing Fred and tackling him too.

I released Oliver's arms and he suddenly rolled us both over so I was underneath him, my hair in the mud.

"Gotcha Bell!" He laughed, seized my own wrists, and pushed them into the brown sludge. His face was only a few centimeters from mine and I couldn't find my breath to speak, so I just put a big grin on and took the split-second opportunity to feel the warmth of his hands on my wrists (not to mention the warmth of his toned quidditch body covering almost every inch of mine) and the intense heat of his breath caressing my face.

Once I found my voice again, I sighed and said, "I give up."

Oliver grinned and rolled over so that he was laying in the muddy grass next to me.

"That was fun," Oliver said while he looked up at the cloudy sky.

"Yeah, except the girls and I lost, but Alicia and Ang look like their having fun now," I commented, looking over at Alicia, who was about to shove Fred's face in the mud.

Angelina was trying to get away from George, but he tackled her and they ended up rolling across the grass into the lake with a splash and a scream.

"Yeah," Oliver agreed.

He picked up my hand which was, naturally, dripping with mud. He wiped it off as best he could and examined it while I tried to suppress spontaneous giggles ( I am not one to giggle like a girly pansy who wears nothing but pink).

"Is this my doctor's examination for this year?" I joked, looking at his fingers tracing the lines in my hand and holding it in front of his eyes delicately.

"I don't think 'Dr. Oliver' sounds quite right. Do you?" He smiled, keeping his eyes on my hand.

"Maybe not. Oliver Wood, Quidditch Captain sounds much better," I replied. He put his hand against mine and compared sizes. His perfect hand was a pretty big, but it didn't quite dwarf mine.

"You've got good-sized hands Kate. Not too small and not too big. Just right for a quaffle."

I felt my cheeks pinking up, but he didn't see because he was still looking at my hands, where electricity was flowing quite dangerously. One of us was bound to get zapped eventually. I, myself was beginning to feel a few jolts.

"Well thank you, Oliver. I think your hands are nice too. Not too hairy," I grinned and continued, "or calloused. Why don't you have calluses? You fly _all _the time," I smiled , wondering if he would let me in on the secret.

"I've got a spell put on my broom that makes it almost impossible to get calloused. Madame Hooch shoed me that one last year. It's been a life-saver. I can hold a quill without breaking down in tears now!" He laughed and I snatched his hand to examine it. He didn't resist, but turned his head to watch me, smearing mud on his handsome face again.

I scrutinized his lightly and impeccably tanned left hand, dragging my fingertips over the places that the calluses should have been. These spots were a little rougher, but definitely not calloused. I spread his fingers out as wide as they could go and frowned.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes locked on my face.

"I'm trying to figure out how in Merlin's name you caught that first goal," I answered and he smiled when I met his sweet, clear brown eyes.

"_Magic_," he supplied and I laughed.

Oliver pulled our hands onto his stomach and laced our fingers together. We were silent. The quietness was content and I felt so at peace as I watched our hands entwined so comfortably together, rising and falling with each breath he took.

A few minutes later, George and Angelina finally crawled out of the lake sopping wet.

Fred and Alicia saw them and ran over to give them bug muddy hugs because George and Angelina were free of most of the mud when the fell into the lake.

Oliver and I watched them all slip and slide over the field trying to catch each other. Big thunder clouds were overhead and fat drops of cold rain began to splatter down on our faces.

I shivered involuntarily and scooted closer to Oliver. He smiled when the sides of our body were touching and I immediately felt the heat from his body seep through our sweaters into my body.

I stuck my tongue out to catch the rain drops that were not pelting down at us, but soon got frustrated that none of them were landing on my tongue.

I pulled my wand out of my pocket and pointed it in the sky while Oliver curiously waited to see what in the world I was doing.

"Accio raindrop!" I said enthusiastically. A big fat raindrop zoomed through its friends and I directed it to my mouth were it dropped. I licked my lip as I felt the drop trickle down my throat.

Oliver was laughing at me.

"What? Have _you _ever tried to catch a raindrop on your tongue?" I defended myself and turned my head towards him.

What I didn't realize until that moment was that since we were so close together there in the mud, our heads were therefore also very close. Oliver's face was right _there_. My question was lost as I felt his warm breath softly wipe all thoughts from my mind.

I was looking straight into his stunningly chocolate eyes when my stomach growled loudly, interrupting the moment.

"Time for lunch?" He said quietly and his wonderfully tempting lips curved up into a smile.

"Guess so," I replied softly and looked into his deep brown eyes one more time before I turned my face forward.

Oliver picked himself up out of the mud with some difficult, because it had begun to suck us down into it. He never let go of my hand.

Oliver pulled me up and we started back toward the others hand-in-hand. I didn't really care if Alicia saw what was going on, but I had to prepare myself for the worst. She was definitely going to want to have a girl-talk later on tonight in our dorm.

Alicia _did_ notice when she saw us and squealed, but started chattering to Fred so she wouldn't give it away.

Once our crew reached the castle steps, we shook off the mud as best we could and headed towards the Great Hall for food. We sat down at our usual table and loaded food onto our plates.

"Filch is going to have a fit when he sees the mess we've made," I said to the others.

We all laughed, looking at the trail of mud that was coming from the Great Hall doors.

"Well," said George, "we might as well go and plant a few dungbombs for Filch's enjoyment, Fred."

Fred chortled and the two of them got up and ran off with plenty of food in their arms.

The rest of us enjoyed the rest of our lunches.

Later Alicia, Angelina, and I went to take showers and change into some dry, clean clothes.

After I got out of the heavenly shower and had changed into some jeans and a clean sweater, I went back to my dorm and opened the door.

Alicia and Angelina were sitting on my bed, practically busting the springs in the mattress from bouncing in excitement. The obviously were not waiting until the late hours of the night to hear the gory detail of my "Oliver thing".

_________________________________________

**A/N: Please, give me a review! Of the many visitors I've thankfully had, I've only gotten seven reviews so far. So LEAVE ME A REVIEW!! Tell me what you want, what you really really want! That was my lame attempt at a joke. kind of. It wasn't really a joke…. anyways, leave a review! :D**


	5. Chapter 5: Catch Me

**A/N: THANK YOU soooo much for the review of the last few chapters! They've kept me going and motivated to keep writing as much as I can! Unfortunately, I have AP exams coming up very soon, so that's why I haven't posted any chapters up recently, but I hope I made up for it with this chapter, because it has some serious fluffy goodness and its long enough for a trillion chapters at least! Remember to read it and give me a review!!!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. I only own the plot and whatever isn't in the glorious HP books that is in this story._

CHAPTER 5

__________________________________________

The Electric Angel

__________________________________________

After a long rest of the day telling Angelina and Alicia the same details over and over again, the week went by pretty quickly. All of us were focused on our school work (excluding Fred and George, who were not to be bothered, because they were using their study time for time to work on placing orders for some kind of explosive). Quidditch practices were getting longer and harder, and I didn't see much of Oliver during practice, because Alicia, Ang, and I were told to practice our fakes and passing. The three of us were pretty much set on the making goals part.

Outside of homework and quidditch, Oliver, Fred, and George were off having "man time" which was a tradition that the three of them held up every year around this time. They would spend one week of the school year plotting and doing other secretive things that they never told us about, no matter how hard us girls tried to squeeze it out of them. And we tried _really _hard. Last year we cornered them and beat the damn out of them with some sneaky little magic tricks I had up my sleeve, but they recovered from their tickle fits eventually and didn't give in. One time Alicia and I caught them close to drunk from Firewhiskey in the room of requirement and took pictures of them because they were acting hilarious.

The weekend after "man time" went pretty slowly, because I had to write a thirteen inch essay for Charms. Oliver went with me to the library and helped me find books for research on the topic I was writing about. I had the same problem I had when he had come with me the time I had to write the Transfiguration essay. It was hard to focus on my essay, because this time, Oliver was sitting directly across from me with his handsome head bent over a diagram of some sort.

When I had finished, we walked back to the common room slowly and he once again slipped his zappingly pleasant arm around my waist.

For the rest of the week, Oliver accompanied me to the library every day and always shyly held my hand on the way to the common room, or wherever we were going.

____________________________________________________

I entered my dorm after breakfast and went over to my four-poster bed and sat down on it. Alicia and Angelina were on their own beds organizing their things on their bedside stands getting ready for today's Hogsmead trip.

"So, Kat," Angelina started, "Alicia and I are going with Fred and George again today when we go to Hogsmead, so-"

"-So wear something hot that will make Oliver drool," Alicia finished.

I laughed and got up to look through my clothes.

"Ok guys, help me out here. You both know I don't really look at what I put on in the morning," I said.

I rifled through my clothes and they came over and picked a few things out. Alicia held up some tan corduroys and Angelina picked out a deep blue long sleeve sweatshirt and wagged it in front of me.

"This. Definitely," Angelina said, "He won't be able to tear his eyes away from you, or his hands."

I blushed and snatched the clothes. Changing into them, I said, "Yeah, Ok."

Alicia and Angelina were ready to go and I was soon enough.

"Leave your hair down, Katie. It looks hot that way," Alicia said as we walked out to the common room to meet the boys.

"Whatever you say Alicia," I smiled and pulled my loose golden curls out of my ponytail.

We met the boys and started walking to the carriages that were waiting outside the castle doors. Then, we all piled into one and it started moving towards Hogsmead. I was sitting next to Oliver in the cramped, but cozy space. Our legs were pressed up against each other and the electricity I felt whenever he was in contact we me instantly charged up my body, sending zaps to my heart and…other places…

Once we arrived at Hogsmead, Alicia and Angelina went off with George and Fred, as promised, while Oliver and I went to the Three Broomsticks and picked up two delicious butterbeers.

We were walking around Hogsmead and we ended up by the Shrieking Shack once again.

"Come on, let's go in," Oliver said excitedly, smiling and pulling my hand towards that inconspicuous tree that had the floo-powder-like substance at its roots.

"Okay, okay!" I laughed and followed him.

He stooped down and scooped up a handful of the power, tossed it over our heads and said, "Shrieking Shack!"

We spun around and it seemed like we were being squeezed through a very small tube, and then with a pop, we were once again behind the rickety door of the run down shack.

I sipped my butterbeer and headed upstairs to the old bedroom where I sprawled out one of the two small beds. I finished off my butterbeer and set it down on the floor. Oliver came up sometime later when I was about to doze off. He crossed the creaky floor and looked out the window that overlooked the rest of Hogsmead. Once again, the sun hit his hair and made it almost inhumanly glorious. I day-dreamed about it for a while as he stood there.

A shockingly cold wind suddenly whisked through the partially shattered window and made me shiver. Oliver noticed and came to lay down next to me on the small bed. He held my closest, chilled hand in one of his warm ones and put his other arm around me behind my head. We laid there for a few minutes and I committed the moment to memory.

I snuggled closer to Oliver and he started playing with my hair, which sent electric tingles through each strand he toughed to my body. I turned my head to him and found his eyes looking directly back into mine with a strange look in them that I couldn't recognize. He stopped playing with my hair. I looked deeper into Oliver's caramel, chocolaty eyes and I felt like I could see his soul. His eyes were pure and clear, but they seemed to cloud over with an unspoken emotion as the minutes, or hours passed by- I didn't know which.

Suddenly he broke the silence and my train of thought.

"I can't stand this anymore," he whispered and he closed the small space between our faces and his soft lips touched mine, sending a bolt of lightning to my heart.

My whole body went into shock and I lay there paralyzed with surprise for a split second. I felt my lips kissing him back, but they moved on their own accord. My brain hadn't quite caught up with my body yet.

Oliver held my face to his with one hand and put the other in my hair. My hands were already in his. As we kissed, I felt a little odd at the angle my body was in, so once I regained control over myself, I rolled over so I was half on top of Oliver and I ran my hands through his impossibly soft hair. His lips paused for a second and I felt him smile under my own lips, so I pulled back to breathe.

Oliver rested his hands on my back and I kept my hands busy in his hair, which was very ruffled.

"_Bloody hell, Oliver's hot,_" I thought.

"Well that was interesting," Oliver said very quietly, his mile still tugging at the corners of his mouth.

I felt a giggle fighting its way up my throat, so I swallowed to suppress it and said, "It was very interesting."

Oliver took one of his hands and played with a loose curl of my hair that was dangling by his angelic face.

"You might've guess by now that I like you..." Oliver trailed off and I smiled nervously as his eyes conveyed his desire for my answer.

"I like you too Oliver," I replied and looked into those eyes that made my heart thud loudly and erratically now. I felt like my heart beat was shaking my whole body.

"So I know that kiss was great for me, but how was it for you? I'm not exactly what you might call experienced," I mumbled.

I felt heat rise to my face, so I let my eyes drops to stare at his cheeks and ears instead of his angelically perfect eyes.

"Katie Bell! Was that your very first kiss?" Oliver asked jokingly but astonished at the same time. He looked genuinely surprised.

"Yes, and thank you for it by the way," I answered shyly.

I met his stunning gaze again. I was still on top of him and my hands were now resting on his chest where I felt his steady heart beating.

"_Well_ then. This will have to be your second," Oliver said quietly and he pulled my head back down to his and he kissed my passionately. The electricity was staggering as I felt his tongue graze my lip. I let my body melt into his and I kissed him back, letting my hands roam to his shoulders and muscular arms. Oliver moved one of his warm hands slowly down my back and let it rest at the edge of my pants.

I couldn't help but let a small noise escape my mouth now as I kissed him. I wasn't sure if it was some kind of moan or a giggle, but I was undoubtedly going to explode with happiness.

Soon enough, we were both out of breath, so we had to break apart. I laid there on top of Oliver for a few seconds while we looked at each other. The corners of his mouth were curving up and mine broke into a breathless smile. Then I rolled back over so I was snuggled into him. I looked up at his face, which looked perfectly handsome as usual, and reached to touch those perfect lips and cheeks, and that impeccable nose. While my fingertips explored his face, he laced my other fingers with his and closed his eyes.

We lay there for a while and eventually I tore my eyes (and my fingers) off of his face and rested my head on his sweater-clad chest. Oliver put his free arm around me and I smiled to myself.

The chilly wind blew through the window again after a few minutes, and I looked out of it and saw that the sun was high in the sky.

Without taking my head off Oliver's chest, I said, "The others will probably start to wonder where we've gone soon."

"Yeah...I guess we should go find them," Oliver replied, but neither of us moved.

We lay there for a few more minutes while Oliver played with my hair and I tried unsuccessfully to steady my heartbeat.

"So...you and me..." Oliver went on while I watched him twist a piece of my golden brown hair around his finder.

"...equals us..." he said slowly.

"What is us?" he asked me.

"Us is whatever you want it to be," I said.

"Okay, then how about he be my girlfriend?" he asked quietly.

I turned my head up and kissed him once on the lips.

"Alicia and Angelina will not be able to contain themselves," I replied and grinned. I put my head back down on his chest.

"So that's a yes, then," he said cheerfully.

"Definitely, yes," I said.

He didn't say anything, but kissed the top of my head. I laughed with happiness and hugged his torso with my free arm.

"We should really go find the others," I said.

"_Fine_," he replied and we both reluctantly clambered of the bed and walked down the creaking, lopsided stairs to the front door.

Once again, Oliver grabbed a handful of powder from a flowerpot that was sitting next to the door. He threw it over our heads.

"The Three Broomstick!" he said, and we were suddenly spinning on the spot and I felt like I was being sucked down a straw, and then it was over. We were standing in front of the Three Broomsticks on the cobblestone road.

""I see them there inside. Come on," he said, ,taking my hand and leading me inside the cozy pub to a small wooden table where George, Angelina, Fred, and Alicia were sitting. We weaved our way through the crowded, warm, and busy place to our friends' table, greeted them, and sat down at the table.

"How was Zonko's?" I asked them.

I purposefully put off telling them anything about what Oliver and I did. Alicia rolled her eyes at me. George immediately went off on a long and excited description of every new product that Zonko's had just gotten in.

Oliver took my hand under the table and folded them on his knee. My heart beat sporadically as tingles made their way up my arm from the points of contact with Oliver's skin.

"Say, Oliver, where did you guys go?" George interrupted my wandering thoughts.

"Oh, uh, we came here first and then wandered around a bit. Then we went to the shrieking shack," Oliver supplied casually. It wasn't fair how calm he always seemed to be.

"It's too bad the entrance is all blocked up. That place would be loads of fun," said Fred and I felt myself pinking up, so I pretended to be very fascinated staring at a strange-looking lady who was sitting at the bar of the pub.

"Yeah," Oliver said grinning, "it _would _be loads of fun."

I couldn't help but blush a little more.

"We should get back to Hogwarts now," Angelina said, "Almost all the carriages are gone."

We looked out the window and saw only one carriage left. All of us got up noisily, scraping our chairs on the bottom of the floor and getting up to go catch our ride before it was too late.

Oliver never let go of my hand and I was glad he didn't, because otherwise I might've ran around the cobblestone streets of Hogsmead yelling, "I kissed Oliver Wood! Take _that, _female population!" Luckily, my dangerous and explosive happiness was momentarily stifled, because there seemed to be a problem with that last carriage. Fred and George were trying to throw out a few third years from it. There must've not been enough room for all of us.

Oliver and I walked up to the carriage and saw exactly how much room there was.

"Only enough room for the third years and three of us," I said to Oliver.

"Well I guess some of us will have to walk back," he said.

"Alicia and I will walk back with Kates," Angelina said eagerly. She must've been able to tell I wasn't going to be able to control myself for much longer around Oliver. Alicia was nodding in agreement enthusiastically.

Oliver pulled me closer to him protectively as if to shield me from their overbearing gusto.

"Maybe one of us guys should go with you," Oliver said.

Fred and George finally gave up on the third years and came to join us.

"No, Wood. The girls can handle themselves," George said.

"Should we remind you about our wicked hexes?" Angelina asked with one raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Or do you need a demonstration, dearest Captain?" Alicia matched her facial expression to Angelina's and whipped out her wand.

She jumped into a ridiculous dueling stance that reminded me of ex-Professor Lockhart. Fred, George and I burst out laughing when Oliver pretended to cower with fright behind me.

"All right, all right," he said after we had all recovered, "you win, but when you get to the Great Hall for dinner, don't expect us to save seats for you."

"It's not like anybody else wants to sit by you guys," Alicia joked and turned around to get her shopping bags.

Fred and George clambered into the little carriage. Angelina went off to catch up with Alicia to get her own shopping bags, so I stood on my tiptoes and gave Oliver a quick kiss on the lips. He smiled and backed up to the carriage.

"Don't let them torture you too much," he said. I grinned and waved good-bye.

I turned to face Alicia and Angelina who were back now and grinned at them.

It was silent for a moment and then they finally exploded.

"_Every _detail-" Alicia started, jumping up and down.

"-All the juicy stuff-" Angelina was having a hard time keeping her voice down.

"-did he ask you out yet?"

"-did he _kiss_ you?"

"-what did you really do?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, we could tell something happened between the two of you. You were really quiet in the Broomsticks, but I could tell you were having a hard time staying in your seat, " Angelina said as we started walking down the path.

"Oliver was staring at you with this weird, blissful look on his face," Alicia said.

"OKAY! I will tell you everything," I said and they grinned goofily at me.

"Go on," Alicia said.

"I can't tell you exactly where we went, because it's really a secret, but I will tell you what we did," I started the story.

"It was cold and I was laying down...somewhere...and so he came and laid down next to me and put his arm around me. After a while he said something to me while I was looking in his eyes and he kissed me."

Angelina and Alicia were looking at me with really big eyes and attentive faces. I almost laughed at them, but went on instead.

"So anyway, he kissed me, and I kissed him back for...a while...and then we talked a bit and he kissed me again," I smile at the wonderful tingly feeling I felt on my lips from just talking about those two kisses.

I though Alicia and Ang's faces were going to explode given the amount of goofy grinning they were doing. We kept walking.

"And so he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes of course."

My friends squealed. I felt like pushing their excitement farther.

"And, bloody _hell_, does Oliver have muscles! I could feel them through his sweater! And that was one _damn _fine first kiss!" I grinned when I achieved my goal of making Alicia and Angelina too excited for their own good.

"OH MY GOD KATIE! THAT WAS YOUR FIRST KISS!" Alicia screamed, stopping in her tracks. her jaw almost hit the ground.

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! _DAAAAAAAMN_ GIRL!" Angelina looked at me with pure surprise and respect for Oliver being my first kiss.

I grinned and ran ahead of them. They chased after me and eventually tackled me into the grass next to the dirt pathway. They didn't let me up until I had told them every detail (even though I will admit that I did leave some parts out that they didn't need to know about).

Finally they let me go and helped me up.

"So I've got Wood, and you two have the twins," I said as we caught sight of the castle in the distance. It was almost dinnertime.

Neither of them said anything, so I knew I had hit the jackpot.

"You know what I'm talking about," I went on, "Alicia you need to get a move on with Fred."

I sniggered when she immediately denied her obvious gigantic crush on Fred.

"I have _noooooo_ idea what you got that idea from, my friend, but there is no attraction between Fred and I whatsoever." She spouted and waggled her finger.

"Oh just admit it! Just then when you said his name your eyes lit up and you turned pink." I laughed victoriously and danced around her.

"I can read you like a book! Fred and Alica sitting in a tree-"

"K-I-S-S-" Angelina joined in and yelled at the top of her lungs.

"-I-N-G!" I finished.

"Ok! Merlin, I admit it! I may have developed an teensy weensy bit of feelings for the boy," she said sheepishly. We were almost to the front steps of the castle.

"But what about you Ang? We know you drool over George in charms class and Arithmecy, but we haven't heard much else about you tow," Alicia said as we climbed the steps of Hogwarts at last. We were welcomed by a great swoosh of warm air as we opened the large doors.

Angelina blushed and said, "Well he kind of already asked me on a date for this Tuesday..."

Alicia and I were not surprised. We had seen the two of them interacting in ways that couldn't be deemed part of the "friend zone". They were practically together already.

"Not surprising," I said and we entered the Great Hall for dinner.

My stomach growled with perfect timing as food appeared on the golden plates that lined the wooden tables.

We approached our table where Fred, George, and Oliver were sitting. When they saw us, they immediately arranged themselves so that each of them were covering the empty seats beside them. All three of them had sparkles in their eyes, but continued their conversation they were having before we walked in.

"Looks like nobody wanted to sit next to you, boys. What a surprise!" Angelina said.

"Actually we had to fend off quite a few pretty girls," George said and Ang's eyes narrowed.

"Oh?" she questioned, "like who?"

George made a dreamy face and said, "Only the best-looking ones...yes, let's see, I believe Milicent Bulstrode took quite a blow when we told her she couldn't sit with us..." he said and Angelina grinned.

"Well then, thank you for resisting her beauty and saving our seats for us!" Angelina moved to take her seat, but George was in the way.

"I don't think we want to give us these seats quite yet," Fred said with a teasing smirk.

I didn't even try to move Oliver over, so I just sat on his lap and ate his food, which was delicious. He wrapped his strong arms around me and lifted me off of him and into the seat next to him.

"_Easy win,_" I thought.

"No eating the Captain's food!" he said and grinned through a mouthful of steak.

I took another bite of his steak and chewed it slowly in front of him before licking my fork and my lips. His eyes playfully narrowed.

While this was happening, Angelina had somehow managed to know George off the bench and onto the floor. I saw Alicia make Fred blush when she dragged her hand across Fred's shoulders and then ran her hand through his hair, and he started to choke on his food.

"Can I sit next to you Fred?" She said sweetly, "Please?" Fred let her sit and she grinned at me. I almost burst out laughing, but instead heartily ate a spoonful of mashed potatoes to save Fred from even more embarrassment.

Oliver laced his fingers through mine under the table like he had done earlier that day at Hogsmead. It worked out pretty well because he was a lefty and I was a righty, so we could still eat without difficulty.

We all enjoyed dinner after that and filled up with ice cream for dessert.

Once we started walking to the common room, Angelina jumped on George's back and he caught her just in time. Alicia did the same and leaped onto Fred piggyback style.

"Uh-oh," I said to Oliver, "It looks like my turn again."

Oliver grinned and said, "Shoulders or bridal?"

I smiled a little nervously and said, "Just catch me."

I ran and jumped into his arms so I was in the front and he was looking down at me. His arms felt irresistibly perfect and strong under me and I put my arms around his neck. I could feel a light pulse from his heart. Oliver's delighted eyes met mine and made me smile.

"_How does he do it? He's so calm and perfect,_" I wondered.

"Bridal style it is then," and we continued down to the portrait of the fat lady.

After the others went through the portrait hole, I thought Oliver would let me down, but he stopped and looked down at me for a moment with a faint smile tugging at his lips. I smiled as my heartbeat automatically stuttered and jumped around. It's amazing how just this angel's smile could make my heart flip. And there was actual physical heart throbbing going on here.

Finally, I quietly asked, "Can you hear my heart beating?"

His smile was almost a grin now.

"No," he replied, "but I can feel it."

I put my hand over his heart and felt its steady pulse send zaps through my pal, making my own heart beat stutter some more.

"How do you keep yours so steady? Don't I affect you at all?" I asked shyly, drawing circles on his shoulder just above his heart.

"Of course you affect me," he assured me, "Every time I look at you my heart races like you wouldn't believe. I have just learned to keep it under control so I don't seem like a freak to you."

"I must be a freak to you then," I said.

"No you're not," Oliver said, "On the contrary, you're the most beautiful, funniest, cleverest girl I've ever met."

I blushed and said, "Well that's good, because you're the most handsome, most talented, most angelic boy I've ever met." My blush deepened.

"And I don't care if you're I freak," I added and Oliver laughed softly.

He put his forehead against mine, looked into my eyes and said, "Oh really?"

He held my hand against his heart and at first it was steady but then it became sporadic and its pace quickened. He was still looking in my eyes, neither of us blinking. I gasped and he kissed me, still holding my hand to his heart which was now jumping around even faster.

He let the kiss wander away from my mouth and up my jaw line where he paused and whispered, "I am a freak."

I smiled a little shakily because he had taken my breath away, and said, "Good."


End file.
